The Chronicle of the American Condition

Mar 18, 2010

First of all, thanks for all the input and email. I really thought most of you would have given up on this mess long ago, but I was wrong.

I'm glad it's not just me getting burned out by politics. They seem
to be doing okay without my meddling. I was getting weary of being
lumped in with a medium that never seems to be satisfied (look up Dennis
Kucinich and Jane Hamsher if you want to see what I mean).

Aaargh, Bonnie and Netto like when we talk about gadgetry, gizmos and my experiments into tech land. I do loves me my gadgets - and ways of hacking them to make 'em "better." My last project was successfully taking a Dell Mini and making it a pure dual-boot of Snow Leopard and Windows 7 (Dell's platform doesn't allow Boot Camp). I'm wondering how I can screw with an iPad, but on someone else's dime.

That's a dandy thought. Some others...

@Cobbnek - No, I don't think writing about the Catholic church is in my line of expertise, nor will it endear me to anyone, but thanks.

@Vermin - Glad you like my cartoon posts. I never tire of that.

@carolt - Really? Cars? My dad was a car dealer, so you'll understand why I have a germ-like aversion to that very topic.

Hidflect writes: "This is
the standard effect before the rise of the third candidate. Party A(a)
and Party A(b) both have slowly twisted themselves into a Gordian knot
of mutual action and loathing. Start looking around for the guy/gal
whose going to become that shot out of the blue." Interesting thought, but who will that candidate be who we can really believe in and who doesn't turn out to be a closet flaming screwball on crack? (see Ron Paul, Ross Perot)

Keep 'em coming. In the meantime, the Bloggregator alone is definitely worth keeping the domain in operation, so we're not going to pull the plug by any stretch of the imagination.

A federal judge who found it
unconstitutional that Congress tried to cut funding to the activist
group ACORN has rejected a government request to change her mind and
has ordered government agencies to make it clear the funding isn't
blocked.

In a written ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Nina
Gershon made permanent her conclusion last year that the cutoff of
funding was unconstitutional. She ordered all federal agencies to put
the word out about it.

The Brooklyn judge said ACORN was
punished by Congress without the enactment of administrative processes
to decide if money had been handled inappropriately. She said the harm
to ACORN's reputation continues because the government never rescinded
its advice to withhold funding after it was distributed to "hundreds,
if not thousands, of recipients."

Last
year, a series of videos filmed at ACORN offices around the country
sparked a national scandal and helped drive the organization to near
ruin. In one video, ACORN employees were shown apparently advising a
couple posing as a prostitute and her boyfriend to lie about her
profession and launder her earnings; Brooklyn prosecutors said they did
not commit a crime.

In asking the judge to reconsider her
December ruling, the government cited a Dec. 7 report written by Scott
Harshbarger, former attorney general for Massachusetts. It said the
report "reinforces Congress' purpose in preventing fraud, waste and
abuse" by describing ACORN's long-standing management problems.

The report concluded that ACORN leadership at every level was thin, the government noted.

The
judge, however, wrote that it was "unmistakable that Congress
determined ACORN's guilt before defunding it." She said Congress is
entitled to investigate ACORN but cannot "rely on the negative results
of a congressional or executive report as a rationale to impose a
broad, punitive funding ban on a specific, named organization."

The Costa Rican healthcare system is rated very highly on an
international level, and the country’s citizens enjoy the health and
life expectancy equal to that of more developed nations. These
accolades come courtesy of strong, universal health insurance and excellent public and private hospitals.

Costa Rica’s public health insurance system, commonly known as the
Caja, is available country-wide to all citizens and legal residents.
There are ten major public hospitals – four in San Jose, including the
Children’s Hospital – affiliated with the Caja. For non-emergencies and
everyday medical care, small clinics, known as EBAIS (pronounced
ay-vy-ice), are located in almost every community.

The cost to affiliate with CCSS is approximately 10 to
11.5% of your income; alternatively, residents may become members via
ARCR, which provides a streamlined and simple joining process. Please
note that for those under age 55, Caja payments include a mandatory pension payment, which will be disbursed beginning at age 65.

As
of 2009, private insurance is available through INS, the
government-owned insurance monopoly. Most plans cover dental work,
optometry, and cosmetic surgery in the case of an accident, and neither pre-existing conditions nor
annual check-ups are included. Prescription drugs, certain medical
exams, sick visits and hospitalization are covered at 70% cost, and
surgeon and aesthetician costs are covered at full cost. Currently,
private medical insurance costs about $50-$100/month per person, depending on age, gender and other factors.

In addition to INS insurance, expats may also purchase international health care insurance from abroad, which will cover most private hospital costs. Be aware
that these plans often cost more than their INS equivalents.

Mar 07, 2010

[John Cory is a frequent contributor to Hoffmania and many other well-read sites. You can read his other work at john-cory.com]

I am angry.

I’m tired of pundits and know-nothing media gasbags. I’m tired of snarky “inside politics” programming. I am sick of the bigotry and hatred of “birthers” and faux patriotic cranks and their GOP puppet masters. And I’m really pissed at the Democratic Party that confuses having a plate of limp noodles with having a spine.

I’m going to vomit if I hear the word “bipartisanship” one more time.

It was “bipartisanship” that gave us this activist conservative Supreme Court. A Supreme Court that says money is free speech and corporations are persons except when real people try to hold them accountable for their greed and poisonous ways.

“Bipartisanship” gave us the Patriot Act and FISA and illegal wiretaps and two wars and “free speech zones” and “no fly” lists. God bless bipartisan America.

I get nauseated every time the Senate explains how it takes a super majority to do anything for the American people. Tell you what Senate Bozos, if it takes 60 votes to pass legislation than it should take 60% of the popular vote to get you elected.

When some Tea Party crank says, “I want my country back,” I respond, “No madam, you want your country backward.”

When a deficit-mongering politician says, “How do we pay for this?” Why not ask, “What did you Republicans do with the surplus we Democrats left you?”

When a compassionate conservative says, “Healthcare reform is socialism,” why not answer, “No, sir it is the moral and American way to care for people.”

Yes, I can hear it now: “You are naïve and simplistic. These are complicated matters and require sophisticated solutions. Democrats are a big tent and strive for balance. But Republicans block our path at every turn. We are thinking and considering new ways to work in harmony with everyone.”

Bite me.

The only thing you get with “harmony” is a Barbershop Quartet.

Democrats stop being Republican Lite. Stop whining about that mean GOP and their nasty messaging. Grow a pair, get a message, get a bumper sticker and hang it out there. Get some strong vivid talking points.

G-O-P = Greed Over People.

Greed Kills – jobs, people and the economy.

Terrorism is Viagra for Republicans: The more fear – the more excited they get.

When a soldier dies for America, who dares ask if they were gay or straight?

Don’t act so shocked, Democratic Party. Have you looked around lately?

You’re losing the young vote that showed up to elect Obama. You’re losing those old enough to remember real Democrats. Why? Because you don’t talk to them anymore than you talk to me. You talk at me. You talk around me. You talk down to me. You talk about me. You don’t talk with me. And you don’t inspire and you don’t champion and without that you are nothing more than an arbitrator of compromise and abdication.

You are facing a bully. Deal with it!

Republicans want the country backwards. They champion superstition over science because it entrenches ignorance and bigotry and captures the easily frightened.

Republicans treat the Constitution the way they treat the Bible, with selective interpretation and selective application to others while exempting themselves from judgment and accountability.

Republicans preach the gospel of fear because fear is darkness and darkness covers their theft of civil liberties and Constitutional principles.

For thirty years the Republican Party has claimed the mantel of law and order but now quake in dread of the American judicial system when putting terrorists on trial. How criminal is that?

Torture is illegal. Period. John Wayne and Jack Bauer were not our Founding Fathers – only in the make-believe world of Republican drugstore-patriots.

DADT needs to be repealed. Now. It is unconscionable, immoral, and disgusting.

Empathy, compassion and equality are not pejoratives. They are American values proven again and again throughout our history.

Republicans believe that bake-sales and cookies for chemotherapy best determine the value of life and healthcare because life is a pre-existing condition and the “free market” should not have to take on such a high risk – after all, no one gets out alive, so why should the corporation be left holding the bag? Unless of course the price is right.

Republicans believe that government should keep its hands off healthcare but should put its hands inside a woman’s body.

Republicans believe in small government – small enough to hold the “right” people and small enough to be owned and operated by the “right” people. And who are the “right” people? Them. Not you.

Democratic Party, DNC, DLCC, DSCC or whatever your acronym – I have only one question for you: Really?

You can’t win against these guys? You can’t get your message out against these guys? You can’t give America leadership against these guys?

Mar 03, 2010

I guess I have to admit to the fact that those of us who are blessed with still having jobs must now work four times as much to keep them.

That's one reason why my posting has once again ground to a halt. Maybe the other reason is that I just don't want to jinx health care reform via reconciliation by jumping up and down here too much. Besides, it makes the change fall out of my pockets.

Yeah, there's no public option...yet. But there is regulation. We just had nine years of no regulation. This fairy tale known as the "free market" has all but destroyed our democracy.

Corporations are still planting themselves offshore to avoid paying taxes (even though they still got huge tax cuts under Bush). And even if they're forced to pay taxes, the lack of regulation will allow them to raise prices on us. It's a lousy truth, and libertarians get their undershorts soaked when you talk about it, but regulations are necessary. Sorry, kids. Go cry somewhere else. They had their shot at deregulation and it's killing all of us.

"Fair Market" sucks, plain and simple. The cracking down of insurance costs, the ending of pre-existing conditions clauses, the end of randomly revoking insurance - these are all LONG overdue.

We can get to a public option eventually. Right now, the other obscenities the "free market" has allowed have to be dealt with. To use a phrase which the GOP loves to use, let's ram this thing through already.

Good and hard. Right up the obstructionists' filibusters. It's about damned time.

Feb 26, 2010

FRANKS: In this
country, we had slavery for God knows how long.
And now we look back on it and we say "How brave were they? What was the
matter with them? You know, I can't
believe, you know, four million slaves.
This is incredible." And we're
right, we're right. We should look back on that with criticism. It is a crushing mark on America's
soul. And yet today, half of all black
children are aborted. Half of all black
children are aborted. Far more of the
African American community is being devastated by the policies of today than
were being devastated by the policies of slavery.
And I think, What does it take to get us to wake up?

Abortion. BAD. Slavery. Not as bad.

And where did he get this "half of ALL black children are being aborted" crap? Does Meatface here have the proof?

There really is no other way to interpret all this since he's obsessed with abortion and other bullshit that he'll never have to worry about, being a dumb white guy.

Feb 25, 2010

If you missed it last night, MSNBC gave its viewers a double stunner from Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. First, Olbermann revealed his father might be finally losing his battle with the infections from his myriad illnesses - and acknowledged families go through the same pain every day with no safety net. It provided the springboard for this Special Comment.

Rachel then immediately took the GOP's argument against reconciliation (and their false accusations of Democrats invoking "the nuclear option") and threw it right back into their front yard. Brilliantly.

Feb 22, 2010

In the course of unveiling Obama’s new health reform proposal
on a conference call with reporters this morning, White House advisers
made it clearer than ever before: If the GOP filibusters health reform,
Dems will move forward on their own and pass it via reconciliation.

The
assertion, which is likely to spark an angry response from GOP leaders,
ups the stakes in advance of the summit by essentially daring
Republicans to try to block reform.

“The President expects and
believes the American people deserve an up or down vote on health
reform,” White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said on the call.

Pfeiffer
said no decision had been made how to proceed, pending the outcome of
the summit. But he added that Obama’s proposal is designed to have
“maximum flexibility to ensure that we can get an up or down vote if
the opposition decides to take the extraordinary step of filibustering
health reform.”

Translation: If the GOP doesn’t cooperate with us in any meaningful sense, we’re moving forward on our own.

Feb 21, 2010

Remember when the GOP was tripping all over itself just to smell this guy's after shave? Not any more, I betcha.

Appearing on ABC's This Week, the moderate Republican frequent GOP
scourge pointed to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in particular
for arguing this past week that the stimulus bill hadn't produced a
single "net" job gain.

"I find it interesting that you have a lot of the Republicans
running around, and pushing back on the stimulus money and saying,
'This doesn't create any new job,'" said Schwarzenegger. "And then they
go out and do the photo ops, posing with the big check and they say:
'Isn't this great, look at the kind of money I've provided for the
state and this is money to create jobs, and this has created 10,000 new
jobs, this has created 20,000 news jobs, and all those kinds of
things.' It doesn't match up."

"I don't want to beat up on my Republican colleagues but I think it
is kind of politics rather than thinking about one thing, and this is:
'How do we support the president? How do we support him and everything
we can in order to go and stimulate the economy back and think about
the people and not the politics?'

"Anyone that says this hasn't created a job, they should talk to the
150,000 people getting jobs in California," he added, "from the private
sector and also from the public sector."

Romney, it should be noted, has already been slapped on the wrist
once for the stimulus-related statement he made during his speech at
the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday. The Associated
Press fact-checked the speech and found his "assertions lacked context at best and at worst were flat-out wrong."

In a surprising result, Texas Congressman and 2008 presidential candidate Ron Paul (R) won the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference, capturing 31% of the vote. Three-time CPAC straw poll winner Mitt Romney (in '06, '07, and '08) finished second with 22%, followed by Sarah Palin with 7%, and Tim Pawlenty with 6%

Feb 20, 2010

"My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal
life. My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of
French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around
looking for sympathy and votes."

That's actress Andrea Fay Friedman responding to failed governor Sarah Palin's teeth-gnashing lashing out at a Down syndrome character Friedman played in Family Guy.Friedman has Down syndrome.

Feb 19, 2010

He cites California's downward spiral vis a vis Anthem Blue Cross who will raise their rates as much as 39%. He calls for reconciliation and (gasp!) regulation. Look, kids...no regulation got us in this hellhole. Something has to happen.

What would work? By all means, let’s ban discrimination on the basis
of medical history — but we also have to keep healthy people in the
risk pool, which means requiring that people purchase insurance. This,
in turn, requires substantial aid to lower-income Americans so that
they can afford coverage.

And if you put all of that together,
you end up with something very much like the health reform bills that
have already passed both the House and the Senate.

What about
claims that these bills would force Americans into the clutches of
greedy insurance companies? Well, the main answer is stronger
regulation; but it would also be a very good idea, politically as well
as substantively, for the Senate to use reconciliation to put the
public option back into its bill.

But the main point is this:
California’s death spiral is a reminder that our health care system is
unraveling, and that inaction isn’t an option. Congress and the
president need to make reform happen — now.

"I'm gonna be real straight with you," Baldwin told ABC's Jonathan
Karl. "I am not happy about the way things are. I pray for President
Obama every single day. But tell you what. Homey made this bed, now he
has got to lay in it."

I was thinking this was going to be a longshot, and for all intents and purposes it might still be.

But the public option and reconciliation movement in the senate has just landed a big fish.

Senator Chuck Schumer has just signed the letter calling on Harry Reid to hold a reconciliation vote on the public option.

Schumer just fired off an email to supporters
in which he announced that he’s added his name to the letter, which was
initially spearheaded by Senator Michael Bennet and three other
Senators. He wrote:

I just added my name to their
effort to pass a public option through the reconciliation process, and
I wanted you to be the first to know.

This is far from a done
deal, but it’s an opportunity to break through the obstructionism
Republicans have pushed for the past year.

That
brings the total number of Senators calling for this vote to 17. But
Schumer’s signature is arguably far more important than many of the
others.

That’s because Schumer has now become the first member of
the Dem Senate leadership to join this effort. As the former head of
the DSCC he played a major role in engineering the Dem takeover of the
Senate.

This has gained traction over the last couple of days, and it just might be in no small part caused by the permission the Dems are getting from both the media and public. Look, poll after poll shows at least 3/4 of the country wants the public option. This is a no-brainer.

As much as no-brainers are beyond Democrats' line of cognizance, they're finally catching on. The rest of you - fall in line. If your rep is on board, let them know they done good. Reward them with an email pat on the back.

Feb 17, 2010

It looks like the media's waking up and deciding to start telling...the truth.

I KNOW. It's really bizarre, but look at the proof. Yesterday, USA Today called for the killing of the filibuster in this terse editorial which includes:

The filibuster is a Faustian bargain that undermines the will of voters. The promise of change that swept Barack Obama into the presidency and padded Democratic majorities in the House and Senate last year has been largely derailed by the Senate's Republican minority, which has kept a broad array of legislation from coming to a vote.

More than outrageous, this legislative tyranny holds hostage our
democracy to the whims of a political party that was on the losing end
of an election cycle. The voters who gave Democrats control of Congress
and the White House in the recent elections expect results, not
inaction. They expect Congress to bring bills to a vote, not allow a
mean-spirited minority to filibuster them to death.

If Democrats won't use the majority voters gave them to end this bad
practice, then they deserve to suffer their wrath in November's
elections.

Today, we get an assessment on how successful last year's much-derided stimulus program was. Apparently, it could not have worked any better than it has - and (shocker!) it HAS WORKED.

Imagine if, one year ago, Congress had passed a stimulus bill that really worked.

Let’s
say this bill had started spending money within a matter of weeks and
had rapidly helped the economy. Let’s also imagine it was large enough
to have had a huge impact on jobs — employing something like two
million people who would otherwise be unemployed right now.

If that had happened, what would the economy look like today?

Well,
it would look almost exactly as it does now. Because those nice
descriptions of the stimulus that I just gave aren’t hypothetical. They
are descriptions of the actual bill.

Perhaps the best-known economic research firms are IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody’sEconomy.com.
They all estimate that the bill has added 1.6 million to 1.8 million
jobs so far and that its ultimate impact will be roughly 2.5 million
jobs. The Congressional Budget Office, an independent agency, considers these estimates to be conservative.

Word is getting out: The GOP has been spoon-feeding its constituents and the media enough bullshit that it's being thrown up back in their faces. See? Journalism is possible in these days of the Fox News business model.